Tempt the Devil - Anna Campbell

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Tempt the Devil - Anna Campbell

Description~
Any man in London would worship her. Yet Olivia is, quite frankly, bored of them all. Despite her many dalliances, she's never felt true passion, never longed for any lover's touch . . . until Julian, London's most notoriously wanton rake, decided to make her his mistress.

From the moment he first saw her, Julian knew he must possess her. And when he discovers her greatest secret, a scandal that could ruin her reputation and end her career, he knows just the way to use this damaging information to his most delightful advantage. He offers Olivia a deal with the devil: he'll keep her secret . . . if she allows him the chance to show her true ecstasy.

But Olivia must be careful, for Julian has a secret of his own: he will not rest until she is completely, shamelessly his.

Overall this was an ok book. I had never read Anna Campbell before and this was a start.

The idea of the book was good…Olivia has a horrible past (I don’t wanna spoil) that has left her cold to the touch. She has never yearned for a man, yet she is the BEST courtesan there is! While searching for her next man she meets the infamous Julian, Earl of Erith. Julian is instantly intrigued by Olivia and soon makes plans so make her his mistress. Once things are said and done, Olivia reluctantly agrees and moves into her new house the very next day! As some times goes on Julian begins to open up Olivia and find out her dark past and the reason she does not feel pleasure with any man. So he makes it a personal promise that he will not take her to his bed until BOTH of them can be fulfilled! At the same time Olivia is also finding out that Julian has a past and that hes come back to make amends. It turns out his wife died years ago and he was so distraught that he left his daughter and son to grow up with their aunt. Now he wants to re-claim his parentage and fulfill his duties at his daughters wedding. Just that alone is a hard task…but when you throw in a scandal with a famous mistress, it soon becomes impossible!

Can Olivia get over her dark past and learn to feel? Can Julian win her love…and keep it???

Now don’t get me wrong I liked the book decently enough and I know Id read more of AC’s work its just something didn’t fit right in the story. It was like on paper it looks like it would make for the perfect book…but unfortunately for me it wasn’t.

I loved how the whole mistress aspect was different. I liked how she went from man to man…like it was her source of income. And when she was with Julian I loved that she was literally repulsed by him touching her (b/c of her past). In a lot of stories the author tends to just automatically make them fall for eachother and in this book that didn’t happen. She was scared and him helping her heal helped their relationship along. I also loved how he really had to overcome what she was in order to really be with her. If he couldn’t accept her for what sh used to be then she didn’t want anything to do with him. It was great!

Something I didn’t like was just that there was an odd feel to the book. I felt disconnected with the characters. I felt that Olivia being a mistress kinda didn’t fit once you found out her past and that didn’t sit right with me. Julian was an ok hero but some of the things he did…like leaving her b/c he couldn’t marry her (all b/c she USED to be a courtesan) didn’t feel right and then at the end (SPOILER) how he comes and asks her to marry him b/c he has some special license…it wasn’t “OMG how could I leave you”, its was “hey guess its ok now”. Idk it was just weird. Maybe the flow of the story or the awkwardness of everything had some hand in it as well?!? Like I said it’s hard to pinpoint an exact reason why the story didn’t work for me but it just didn’t.

I give this book a total of...